Sleeping Zords
by Lily Hanson
Summary: How Shelby and Kendall really went about finding and taming the Ankylozord.
1. Shelby's Idea

_Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers Dino Charge. This story is fan-made._

Since first meeting Keeper, Kendall had been on a mission to locate the ten missing Energems that Keeper had entrusted to dinosaurs millions of years before. It was a task that seemed impossible to most, considering the likelihood of finding ten tiny gems that were somewhere on this planet. However, Kendall had embraced the challenge. She was unsure of why Keeper had chosen her over everyone else who worked in her field, but she wasn't about to let him down.

Since her mission began, five energems had been located. Kendall discovered two on her own. The blue energem had been found in a glacier, frozen alongside a cave man. Testing placed the cave man to be about a hundred thousand years old, which was an amazing discovery on its own. However, Kendall had gotten the shock of her life when she accidentally allowed the cave man to thaw out, and it turned out he was still alive.

His name was Koda and he had been scared. Of course, he had to be. From his perspective, everything had changed in the blink of an eye. With enough time and patience, Kendall had befriended Koda, and taught him enough about the English language to be able to communicate effectively.

Then, along came Chase, who had received his own energem from an old friend. He had no idea about its power until he stumbled upon Kendall and Koda while visiting the museum. She had explained to him that he had been chosen, and just like Koda, she took Chase under her wing.

For a couple of months, it was just the three of them, plus three energems. Kendall had discovered the pink energem near a triceratops fossil while out on a dig with her team. She had pocketed it and brought it back to Keeper. It hadn't yet bonded with anyone, so Kendall knew she needed to keep it safe.

Eventually, Shelby stumbled upon the energem. She had broken a few rules in doing so, but Keeper had assured Kendall that fate had brought Shelby right where she needed to be. At the same time, Tyler discovered the red Energem and Riley found the green. The three of them made their way to the museum, where they accidentally stumbled upon Kendall's lab and were then told of the responsibility they held.

Five of the energems had been found, five were still missing. Kendall's mission was halfway through. There was still a long way to go, especially since Sledge and Fury were also looking for the power of the Energems and would stop at nothing to possess them. Fortunately, Kendall, with Keeper's help, came up with a way to transform Tyler, Shelby, Chase, Riley and Koda into Power Rangers. It would keep the aliens at bay while the search for the Energems went on.

It was a lot of work, but Kendall found herself enjoying it. She finally felt a purpose with her life; like there was somewhere she was needed. Growing up, Kendall never felt like she belonged anywhere. Her father had walked out on her and her mother, before killing herself, raised Kendall to believe that letting people get close to her was giving them permission to break her heart. So when Kendall moved in with her foster family, to avoid suffering anymore pain and disappointment, she kept them at arm's length. The only thing she found she could depend on in her life was her curiosity. She had fallen in love with dinosaurs and early life, and let herself be consumed by it.

Unfortunately, though this wasn't unexpected to Kendall, research wasn't just about going to amazing places and making incredible discoveries. It was a lot of planning time, and studying, and reading, and testing and many, many failures. In her research, Kendall had hit far more dead ends than she had made discoveries. The key to being one of the greats was taking her mistakes and correcting them, no matter what it meant. Sometimes, that involved simply reworking an idea. Other times, it meant hours, days, or even weeks or months of re-examining data.

So while the Rangers were out on a dig, Kendall was in the lab, doing exactly that. She had some theories about where to find the remaining energems, but none of them were proving true. She hoped the Rangers would stumble upon on by accident, just like how the first five were found, but she needed to stay in the lab, just in case there was something she had missed before.

She thought the Rangers would be gone all day, but in the middle of the afternoon she noticed Shelby walking back into the lab. She looked up from her microscope with a bit of a frown.

"You're back early. Is everything okay?"

"Well, actually... something did happen."

Kendall's first reaction was to look around for the others. She would have been notified if there had been an attack. The alarm was loud enough to snap her out of her deepest thoughts. Sometimes, she forgot about the world around her when she was consumed in her research. But seeing Shelby looked okay, she figured the pink Ranger had simply gotten bored of the rewardless digging and gave up.

Shelby's response was far from what Kendall expected.

"I came up with an idea for how to find the other energems."

Kendall raised her eyebrows, and tried not to let her shock and doubt show, but her voice somewhat betrayed her. "Oh? Really?"

It wasn't that she didn't think Shelby was smart. For an eighteen year old, Shelby seemed to know a lot about the field. However, Kendall had spent many years in school, and many years before that reading up on research papers and challenging theories made by other scientists. After school, she had spent most, if not all her time consumed by her work. When Keeper recruited her for this mission, months and months before Shelby first lay eyes on her pink Energem, Kendall had put all her energy into coming up with a better way of tracking down energems. She didn't want to leave the fate of the world relying on sheer luck that the good guys would reach the powerful gems first.

Kendall picked up her notes, showing them to the younger girl, "I think you underestimate how difficult it is to find an energem."

Kendall turned away from Shelby to continue her own work. However, Shelby didn't seem ready to let up.

"And I think you underestimate me," she responded. Kendall stopped her work and froze, just for a moment. She turned around to look at Shelby, somewhat uncertain whether or not the pink Ranger had spoken back to her. No one had ever spoken back to her. "Ever since I first got here I've been waiting tables, mopping floors, and being a pretty good pink Ranger, if I do say so myself."

Kendall scoffed. None of that had anything to do with being able to find energems. Unless Shelby was going to come across the next one while cleaning up a spill, her job as a waitress was a very weak argument for why her idea could possibly be any good.

But Shelby didn't let up, "But I've also got a lot of ideas going on up here," she said as she pointed to her head. The problem is no one will listen."

Kendall looked away from Shelby just for a moment and breathed out. She had her doubts about the pink Ranger, but those last words felt so familiar to her. Kendall had gone most of her life feeling like she didn't have a voice, and that didn't stop once she found her passion. Everyone she encountered in her field seemed to believe the little girl from a foster home would ever be smart enough to challenge them. Kendall had to prove she was eons smarter than anyone else in the room just to be heard. Her first paper had been rejected by articles several times because she was too young or her background seemed to lend her very little credit. People had a tough time taking her seriously. Really, it wasn't until just recently, after years of hard work, that people were starting to see her as a respected scientist, and that hadn't come easily at all.

So while she doubted Shelby had stumbled upon anything she hadn't thought of herself, she owed it to the pink Ranger to at least hear her out.

She set her notes down and nodded, "Okay, Shelby. I'm listening."

Kendall wasn't all that surprised to see Shelby hesitate. It seemed Shelby had also underestimated Kendall's ability to be empathetic. A lot of people did. Kendall knew she was regarded as cold-hearted. The Rangers had only figured out part of the reason for that when her father came to town, and it seemed it was still sinking in with Shelby.

But the pink Ranger's hesitation wasn't too long for Kendall to give up. Finally, Shelby spoke.

"Well, we combine known facts about the five remaining dinosaurs: climate, known breeding grounds, food sources, stuff I know, with the global scan of the energy signatures for each of those dinosaurs' energems. That's stuff I thought you could help me figure out."

Kendall crossed her arms over her chest. She was very impressed. Shelby's idea wouldn't work, but it had shown Kendall that maybe there was more going on with Shelby than she had initially assumed. If anything, Shelby's idea, while mistaken, had sparked an idea for Kendall.

"Global scan of energy signatures... highly doubtful," Kendall moved over to her computer, and started typing furiously, "Unless, of course, we... That would require DNA samples and the processing power required would limit us to just one dinosaur at a time."

Kendall glanced up quickly for a moment and noticed and absent assistant, so she turned to Shelby with a smile, "Well, are you going to watch or help?"

Shelby smiled and got to work, picking up the DNA sample Kendall had already collected from the ankylosaurus. Thanks to Keeper, they already knew the aqua energem had bonded with that dinosaur, so they had a little bit of a lead. Kendall nodded her head, and found her work was moving quickly thanks to Shelby's idea.

So, in the middle of their work, Kendall did something she rarely had to do. Something that made her a little nervous. She looked up to the pink Ranger, "This was a really good idea, Shelby."

Shelby smiled brightly at the compliment. "You really think so? Thanks, Ms. Morgan, that means a lot."


	2. Kendall's Mistake

_Author's note: I feel like I have to say this at least once every season..._

_I don't take story requests. I will not write someone else's story. I have plenty of my own ideas, and I would like to spend my time and effort focusing on them. If you have a story idea, you are more than welcome to write it yourself._

_But you're no good at writing, you say? Well, neither was I. How do you think I got to this point? And how do you think I'm going to continue to improve (at least, I hope I am). I practice. Writing is an art, and you're not going to be good at it unless you do it yourself._

_Also, I don't take ship requests. I see the couples I like and I write about them. Sometimes, they line up with the popular ship, and sometimes, they're waayyy out there (Serena/Dekker, anyone?). But the point is, I write what I love. The only thing worse than not seeing any stories about your favourite couple together, is seeing a story where the author has absolutely no love for the couple and tries to force them together for a request. So if I ship the same two people as you, you will eventually see them come together naturally. If I don't, you're honestly better off. If you want to see a story about your favourite pair, write it yourself. But you're not good, you say? Refer to my point above. Writing is an art. Please respect my process and ideas and I will respect yours._

* * *

It had taken hours of work – most of the day, in fact, but Kendall had done it. With Shelby's help, she had built a machine that, theoretically, would be able to track an energem. All they needed to do now was test it out.

Kendall brought a new charger over to the machine, showing an excited Shelby what they had managed to accomplish.

"This charger should be able to temporarily power our machine while it searches for the aqua energem."

"Does that mean it can also locate and power the ankylozord?"

"Theoretically," Kendall answered. Nothing had been confirmed yet. Kendall would need to get the machine up and running, and it would have to do everything she hoped it would for this idea to be a success. It was exciting to Kendall. It would shave months of research off her schedule if they could track down energems with the machine. It would also mean there was a higher chance the energems would fall into good hands, and the world would be safe from Fury and Sledge and their armies.

Hopeful, Kendall turned on the machine and watched it come to life as it powered up the ankylo charger. The boys, back from their dig, arrived just in time to be part of the fun.

"Welcome home, gentleman," Shelby said with an air of confidence. Kendall could relate. She was on a little bit of a high as well from their success so far. "Find anything?"

"I think I found... uh, poison ivy," Koda said as he took off his suit and checked out his back. Kendall did note he looked a little red, and would have to pick up some cream for him before the stores closed. But right now, that wasn't the most important thing.

"Well, we had a very successful day, she said and Shelby showed the boys the ankylo charger.

"This is the ankylo charger," she said. "It's the brain that runs our new invention: the E-Tracer."

Kendall blushed slightly, hearing that. She had never been one to share credit, only because the teachers and mentors she had early in her career never shared credit with her. When she came upon something new while helping them, they would take any of her ideas and run with it. Kendall learned in that way that science was a very competitive field. Shelby, easily, could have done the same to Kendall. It was her idea that got this project started. Yet, she hadn't. It was a strange concept to Kendall, but one she found made her happy.

Shelby put the charger into the machine then turned it on. The boys were excited, but Kendall was nervous. Now was the moment of truth. Their hours of work could be a breakthrough, or could have all been for nothing. Kendall turned on the laser, and waited to get something back from the satellites floating above the Earth. Kendall watched as the E-Tracer did a search of the planet and waited hopefully to see if any results would come up. To her delight, it did. Kendall quickly received an alert that the E-Tracer had picked up on something special.

"That's definitely the right energy signature," Kendall stated, "But... I can't say if it's an energem. It might be a Zord."

That was still good news. It wasn't quite what Kendall was hoping for, but it was a step forward. Possessing a Zord wasn't quite as important as locating the missing energems, but it was certainly better than letting Sledge or Fury get their hands on it.

"Comes on, guys," Shelby announced as she started to make her way to the exit, "This time, we're going to dig in the right place."

As the Rangers took off, Kendall stayed in her lab. Until the Rangers arrived to the location to see what it was the tracer had picked up on exactly, she wanted to analyse the readings she had gotten. It would help identify anything important in the future. Even the most subtle of variations in readings between could mean the difference between something they wanted to find, and something they didn't need to waste their time on. After all, Earth still held a lot of mysteries. Until they knew for sure what they had located, there were any number of things it could be.

Kendall worked until she heard an alarm buzzing in her lab. She rushed back to her computer and saw Vivicks and a new monster coming out of the hole in the ground where she was getting the energy readings. Kendall gasped – this shouldn't have been possible. If Sledge or Fury had a way to track down energems, they would have already found them all by now. They did have millions of years of searching over Kendall. She raced back to the E-Tracer to see what could have possibly tipped the aliens off and quickly realized her mistake. She slumped in her chair and sighed loudly.

"Shit..."

She turned off the E-Tracer so no one else could tap into her findings and possibly locate the other energems and then just stared down at her hands until the Rangers were back. They were beat up, likely from the fight, but they were more confused than anything. Keeper appears, and Kendall knew her mistake was serious. She kept quiet as the Rangers tried to figure out what had happened.

"Okay, so the ankylozord is awake," Riley said. "That means the energem bonded to someone."

"You mean, there's an aqua Power Ranger out there?" Shelby asked.

"That is correct," Keeper said. "But he may not know we exist or may have chosen for some reason not to join us yet. What is important now is the ankylozord. Is shares the energem's power and would not normally attack us."

Hearing that made Kendall's stomach churn. She had worked with her fair share of Zords since this mission started and Keeper was right. Despite not being bonded to an energem, the Zords had never tried to hurt her. They knew better, and they understood who was trying to help them, and who wanted to hurt them. Something must have happened before the Rangers arrived to confuse the ankylozord.

And it was her fault.

"Maybe monster sting zord," Koda said, and pointed to the stinger that, during the battle, had gotten lodged in his back. It had turned him against his friends just until they managed to remove it. "Like it sting me."

"That would explain it," Tyler agreed and Kendall only felt worse. Now the monster had definitely reached the Zord before the Rangers, and had certainly done something to hurt it. And that had only happened because of her mistake. Had she been a little more careful with her work, this never would have happened.

"_Idiot,"_ her father mumbled with a shake of his head. He snatched her homework from her hands and held the paper right in her face. _"What does that look like to you? Huh?"_

Now that it was literally right in front of her, young Kendall could make out the number.

"_Sorry, daddy,"_ she whispered and erased her mistake. _"Three?"_

"_Only took you two tries," _her father muttered. _"After three months in first grade, you still don't know how to add one and two?"_

"_I didn't see it was a two," _Kendall insisted, but her father wouldn't have it. He got up and walked off, leaving Kendall to do the rest of her homework by herself in shame. When she finished, she brought it over to him to check. He only took a couple of seconds to glance at it before he tore it up.

"_Do it again," _he growled at her. _"This time, get it right. I'm not hanging up an F on the fridge, Kendall!"_

"_But daddy..."_

"_You made the mistake, Kendall. You correct it. No excuses!"_

"_But..."_

"_Go!" _he shouted. Kendall picked up the torn pieces of her homework. She would need to piece them together before she could start correcting her answers. This second time around, she was determined to make her father proud. She grabbed the first part of her homework and held the paper close up to her face, where the numbers were clear. Now she knew where she had gone wrong.

When she was done, she brought the corrected homework over to her father. He looked it over then nodded.

"_See what you can do when you're paying attention_," he said.

"_Can I watch TV now, daddy?"_

"_Just don't make any noise," _he said and made a little room for her on the couch. He didn't change the channel, so Kendall had to watch another documentary about dinosaurs, though she didn't mind. They fascinated her.

And, they kept her preoccupied when her mother returned home from work and started yelling back and forth with her father.

"No way!" Kendall snapped out of her thoughts to hear Tyler call out, and turned to see him blocking Shelby from leaving. "It's too dangerous."

"Someone has to do it," Shelby insisted. "Besides, it's my stupid E-Tracer that somehow screwed up and gave away the Zord's location to Sledge."

Kendall felt a huge pang of guilt hit her when she heard that. This time, Shelby took credit for their invention, but it wasn't in her favour. She was actually taking the blame. Kendall wasn't used to being spared like that at all. If she had anything to do at all with one of her teacher's or mentor's failed discoveries, they found a way to pin it on her. Hell, her own father had blamed her for his unhappiness just before he disappeared, despite Kendall always trying to do her best for him.

She couldn't let Shelby take the blame for her mistakes. Just before the pink Ranger left, she spoke up.

"Actually... Your device worked brilliantly. Sledge got the location of the Zord because I didn't encrypt the E-Tracer's code. It's my fault we lost control of the ankylozord. Somehow, I'll find a solution."


	3. No Excuses

Determined to correct her own mistake, without causing the other Rangers any more grief that they had already suffered, Kendall drove her truck out to the site where the ankylozord had been found. She saw the large hole the Rangers had reported and knew the Zord had to be hiding somewhere in there. It was dangerous. The Zord was massive, and could easily kill her if she made a single mistake. Especially without any powers to speak of, she was vulnerable. But this was something she needed to do on her own.

When she arrived at the hole, she stopped the truck. She hopped out and reached into the back to grab the rope. She would need it to lower herself safely down the hole, and then get back up, should her task end successfully. She lifted the tarp covering her equipment and let out a cry when she saw Shelby hiding underneath.

"Good grief," she wanted to say something else, but didn't think it would be professional. She grabbed the rope and shook her head. "Stowing away again? Really a bad idea."

"Yeah. And going after the ankylozord alone is also a really bad idea."

Kendall could admit Shelby had a point; this was dangerous. But she wouldn't do so. She grabbed a shovel, just in case she would need to do any digging once she got to the bottom of the hole.

"I rarely make mistakes. And when I do, I correct them. No excuses."

Kendall saw a nearby tree that would be sturdy enough to support her climb up and down and started to tie one end of the rope around the trunk. Shelby hopped out of the trunk and followed her over.

"Look, we created this problem together. Let's solve it together."

"I simply cannot be responsible for sending you down this hole," Kendall stated and it was the truth. Her mistake had already earned the Rangers a few bruises and cuts. If Shelby went down the hole alone and anything happened, Kendall wouldn't know how to live with herself.

Not only that, but for rocks, the energems were rather picky. They had chosen their guardians specifically and for a reason. If anything happened to Shelby, it would be a lot harder for the energem to choose someone new to bond to, and for Kendall to once again track that person down, than it would be for Keeper to find a new scientist to help the Rangers. There were hundreds, if not thousands of scientists just like Kendall. Some were even smarter, she was certain. The Rangers would be fine should this go wrong and Kendall was the one who suffered.

"It's just too dangerous," she concluded to Shelby.

The pink Ranger looked to her mentor with a bit of a sigh. Since being hired by the museum a little over a year before, she and Kendall had butted heads. Shelby didn't know what it was about her that seemed to bother Kendall so much, but something about her did. No matter how many times Shelby had proven qualified to follow Kendall on digs or offer new insight on her research, Kendall turned her down.

Except this last time. For once, Shelby stood up for herself against Kendall and it had finally paid off. The scientist had given her a once in a lifetime opportunity to show off her skills and she blew it. Despite Kendall's belief that it was her mistake that cost the team the ankylozord, Shelby knew the blame was shared equally, if not completely her fault. Her insistence for a more complex, yet easier method, made it possible for Sledge and Fury to steal their lead. If she had just continued to dig with the boys, none of this would have happened.

But she never got the chance to explain that as Poisandra and her newest monster returned. Kendall and Shelby heard him calling out to them and spun around to see they were painfully outnumbered. The monster pointed his trident at the girls. Shelby knew she could take a hit. The pink energem gave her more endurance and strength that a regular person and so she shoved Kendall out of the way, taking the brunt of the blast.

Kendall felt Shelby push her aside and hit the ground hard. She felt some of the blast from the attack, but knew it would have been much worse for her without Shelby's interference. Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to thank the pink Ranger, as Shelby had been knocked back and down the hole.

"Shit," Kendall muttered and hurried to grab the rope. If she could just throw it down, Shelby could get herself out while Kendall found some way to keep the monsters busy. Poisandra and the monster had other plans as they commanded the Vivicks to go after Kendall.

Kendall glanced over her shoulder. She had just a little more than a couple of seconds to toss down the rope before she was in real trouble. She did just that, hoped Shelby had survived the fall and could get herself up, then rushed to where she had dropped her shovel. She didn't have Ranger powers and so was going to need to improvise. Fortunately, when Keeper appeared to her and told her about the risks of this mission, Kendall had gotten a little help.

In some ways, her reluctance to open herself up to other people paid off. Kendall couldn't be sure the people who would bond to the energem were going to care for her. Hell, she doubted they would even like her. With her life on the line, she knew she needed to be able to look after herself.

It wasn't fancy, but it got the work done. With a few whacks of the shovel, she managed to clear a path through the Vivicks so she could run off. She knew they were after her, but as long as she was faster than they were, they couldn't hurt her.

Or so, Kendall thought. Speed meant nothing if she couldn't stay on her feet. Kendall stumbled over a root that stuck up from the ground and landed face first in the dirt. The Vivicks surrounded her, with two of them grabbing her by her arms. They pulled her up to her feet, where Poisandra and the monster had caught up with her. Kendall flinched, fearing what was to come.

"No hurt Kendall!" she suddenly heard a loud cry as Koda leapt out from behind the two monsters, kicked them both aside, and then charged at the Vivicks holding her in place. Kendall had never been more thankful for the cave man than in this very moment.

With her arms now freed, Kendall could fight for herself once more. Koda kept the monster distracted, which was a good thing considering Kendall knew she couldn't stand a chance against him. She picked up her shovel again, and as another Vivick tried to grab her, she swung the shovel into his head. He hit the ground hard, but another took his place.

"This is why I don't leave the lab," she reminded herself as she fought against the Vivicks. There weren't too many of them left at this point. She had taken down quite a few by the hole and just had to deal with the remaining ones. By the time she was done, Chase, Tyler and Riley turned up.

"Ms. Morgan's got some moves!" Tyler announced happily as he ran over to her. He lifted his hand for a high five but Kendall wasn't in the mood. This was now a real mess, and they were one Ranger short.

And this was still her fault.

"I've got to go," she announced and tried to rush off, but Chase grabbed her arm. After seeing her caught up in a fight, he wanted to make sure she was okay.

"Kendall, wait..."

"Shelby fell down the hole," Kendall explained. "She's down there with the Ankylozord, I can't wait!"

"Shelby's... oh no!" Tyler cried out and took off running in Kendall's place but he was stopped by the monster. Chase continued to hold her by the arm.

"Kendall, just get somewhere safe," he insisted. "We can take it from here."

"I..."

"Kendall, just go!" Chase shoved her in the opposite direction and hoped she would head back to the lab while he and Riley rushed off into the fight. Kendall stumbled, but when she found her footing she turned back to the fight. The three boys had everything under control here. She had taken care of the Vivicks so it was just Poisandra and her monster they needed to take care of.

She needed to go somewhere she would be useful. This was her mess, she had to clean it up. So when Chase wasn't looking, she ran back towards the hole.

All of a sudden, the Ankylozord rose up from underground and Shelby was launched through the air. She landed right next to Kendall with a groan.

"That hurt..."

"Are you okay?" Kendall asked the pink Ranger.

"I'm fine. But the Ankylozord has one of those spikes in his head," Shelby said and pointed to the spot where she had seen the spike sticking out. "The monster did get to him. That's why he's attacking us!"

"We'll have to get it out."

"We?" Shelby shook her head. "Ms. Morgan, you're..."

"Do you want a hand or not?" Kendall interrupted. Shelby sighed.

"Fine, but I do the heavy lifting," Shelby insisted. Kendall nodded her head. She could agree to that. Facing a Zord without any Ranger powers was well beyond her limits. The Vivicks alone had already worn her out.

"That means you're the bait, then," she told Shelby. "Keep the Zord distracted. He won't realize I'm climbing up."

"Uh, climbing the Zord counts as heavy lifting!"

"Would you like to trade places?" Kendall asked. Shelby had to think for a moment. If Kendall was used as bait, then the Zord would be trying to attack her. While getting up close and climbing it wasn't the safest job, surely being in a position where the Zord was actively trying to kill her was worse.

"Fine. Just... don't push it," Shelby said. As the Ankylozord set its sights on both of them, Shelby waved her arms in the air. "Hey, Ankylo! Bet you can't catch me!"

As the ankylozord lunged for Shelby, Kendall got her opening. She ran to the leg of the Zord and jumped up on its foot. It wouldn't be an easy climb, especially with the Zord chasing after Shelby, but it needed to be done.

"_You made the mistake, Kendall. You correct it. No excuses!"_

Keeping her father's words in mind, Kendall started the climb up. She nearly slipped down the leg a couple of times, which meant she had been close to getting crushed under the foot of a Zord, but she held on tight until she reached the body. There was less movements from the Zord there, but Kendall still needed to watch where she was going and she needed to keep her balance.

As she approached the head, Kendall began to realize just how dangerous this task was. Shelby was doing a great job at keeping the Zord's attention away from Kendall, but all the rushing around and attacking on its part meant Kendall could easily be thrown off. If she was, it was doubtful she would survive the fall.

But she made it down the neck to the back part of the ankylozord's neck. The spike was within reach. All she needed to do was pull it out. She stretched as far as she could, wrapped her hand around the spike. Just as she went to pull, the ankylozord jerked. Kendall was thrown off, but fortunately had her hands on the spike. She hung from the spike, raised her legs, pressed them against the side of the zord's head and with all her strength pulled the thorn from the Zord.

Removing the spike meant she had taken out the only thing that kept her from falling off. Kendall hit the ground hard and just before blacking out, she saw the ankylozord stop its attacks on Shelby. She had done it. She had fixed her mistake.


	4. An Error Corrected

When Kendall came to, a harsh light blinded her and stopped her keeping her eyes opened for too long. She let out a groan of protest and tried to shift away from the light. It was then she heard people rushing towards her.

"Take it easy, eh," Chase told her and set his hand down gently on her chest so she wouldn't get up. "It was a hard fall."

Kendall remembered the fall. She remembered how it felt to hit the ground with so much force that her body forgot how to function for a moment. Her lungs forgot how to take in air, her heart had certainly stopped beating for a moment, and her brain... well, the fact that she was back in her lab and not still on the ground where she had fallen meant her brain had shut down as well.

"You're lucky you didn't break anything," Tyler told her. "Keeper said you should be back on your feet by morning."

Kendall felt a little better already, and with help from Chase managed to sit up. She realized the Rangers had lay her down on the cot that Koda usually used to sleep on.

"On feet," Koda explained, "But not better. Kendall must rest."

"No worries there," she assured him. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck."

"Sounds about right," Riley offered her a glass of water. Kendall took it in her hands and took a sip, more for the Rangers' sake than her own. She wasn't exactly thirsty but assumed they were trying all they could to help her feel better.

"You really had us worried," Chase told her. "Shelby said the ankylozord stopped attacking her so she figured you had taken the spike back and were on your way back here. We finished the fight, and called to let you know but..."

"Kendall no answer," Koda said. "Really scared me."

"You scared all of us," Tyler said. "But we're just glad you're okay."

"Shelby said you climbed the zord," Riley said. "She's kidding, right?"

"I... fixed my mistake," Kendall said simply and then set her glass down. "If the ankylozord is back on our side, that's all that matters. What we need to focus on next is..."

"Finding whoever bonded with the aqua energem," Chase said. "No worries, Kendall. We'll take care of that. You just get some rest, alright."

"I'll have to encrypt the E-Tracer's code. Once I do that..."

"The E-Tracer isn't on," Tyler said. "Sledge won't be able to steal our leads anymore. You can do your science stuff once you're better."

"Yeah, for now, we'll just look energems the old fashion way," Riley shrugged. "A little hard work never killed anyone."

"Sleep," Koda told Kendall. She sighed, but couldn't argue the boys on this matter. They were insistent and unfortunately none of the energems had decided to bond with people who weren't so stubborn. Kendall lay back down so the boys would know she was taking her well being seriously.

"We'll be up the cafe," Chase told her and set her communicator by the cot. "You call if you need anything, alright?"

Kendall nodded and closed her eyes. She felt someone, likely Koda, cover her with a blanket before the boys walked off. She thought, for an hour at least, she would get some peace, but someone else came down into the lab.

"Ms. Morgan?" Shelby whispered. "You up?"

"I'm trying not to be," Kendall opened her eyes. "What do you need, Shelby?"

Shelby sat down next to Kendall's cot and sighed, "It's about the E-Tracer..."

"It was a brilliant idea, Shelby. I should have encrypted the code. You did nothing wrong."

"You're not alone in this, you know," Shelby reminded her. "I mean, I don't think I could have come up with a way to stop Sledge from finding our signal, but that doesn't mean I'm not at fault here too."

"You came up with the idea. I brought it to life."

"I could have said something. We're fighting aliens, and my idea involved satellites. If I had thought it through a little better, I would have suggested you find a way to stop Sledge piggy backing on our idea. So... it's not your mistake. It's ours. But you fixed it."

"Shelby..."

"The guys told me you held off the Vivicks and I probably wouldn't have been able to get the spike out of the ankylozord without your help. You were really brave to step it up. Where did you learn to fight like that, anyways?"

"You think I would be part of the team to stand against evil aliens and not learn to at least defend myself in a messy situation?" Kendall frowned. "Does it say stupid on my forehead?"

"Right," Shelby nodded. "Well... anyways, I just wanted to say... I really liked working with you today and... thanks for taking a chance with my idea. I promise, next time, I'll think it through just a little bit more. I can be pretty... eager sometimes."

"It was... different working with you," Kendall said and saw the confused look on Shelby's face. Even she knew that was a very subtle compliment. She took a deep breath, "A good kind of different."

Shelby smiled, "Thanks. I've got a bunch of ideas that we can work on! Like, back at the dig, I was also thinking..."

"Shelby... not now. My head's killing me. So unless you're going to tell me you're getting me an aspirin, I don't want to hear it."

"Right," Shelby nodded her head and got up. "I'll let you rest. The guys and I can figure out what to do about the aqua energem on our own until you're feeling better."

"Thank you."

-Dino Charge-

When Kendall woke up again, she could smell something good. She opened her eyes and fumbled around for her glasses. Without them, she wouldn't be able to see much.

"Oh, uh... here," her glasses were put in her hand. Kendall put them on then saw Koda looking down at her with a smile. He offered her a plate of... something. "Breakfast?"

"Breakfast?" Kendall asked and checked her watch. "What time is it?"

"Uh... sun is up," Koda told her. "Open cafe. Made breakfast."

"I slept all night?"

"Koda come back after museum close," he explained. "Saw Kendall sleeping and didn't want to bother her. Let you sleep."

"But I'm on your cot," Kendall frowned. "Where did you sleep?"

Koda pointed, "Cave. Uh... just like home."

"Right, you're used to sleeping on the ground," she muttered and tried to get up, but swayed slightly. She was feeling better, but still a little weak after the fall. Koda caught her and helped her over to her desk so she could sit down and eat. As Kendall picked at her food, Koda sat with her.

"So... um, why Kendall need to fix... mistake?" Koda asked. Kendall looked to him and shrugged.

"It's just... what I do," she said. "As a scientist and a person, when I make mistakes, I need to go back and fix them."

"Okay but... why Kendall risk life? I can climb down hole easy."

"It wasn't your mistake, Koda. It was mine."

"But, Kendall team," Koda pointed out. "Help each other when make mistakes. That why five Rangers and one Kendall."

Kendall set her fork down and turned to Koda, "We are a team, aren't we."

"Kendall not alone," he reminded her. "And Rangers and Koda not going to leave just because Kendall makes a mistake. Rangers not father."

Kendall frowned deeply, "What?"

"Uh... Kendall talks in sleep," Koda told her. "Apologize to dad a lot."

"I was sleep talking?"

"Thought you awake. Tried to talk back," Koda nodded. He approached Kendall. "That why Kendall need to fix mistakes. Think Rangers leave if Kendall wrong?"

"Where are you going to go?" Kendall asked and tried to shrug it off. Koda knew better. He took her hand.

"Rangers know Kendall not perfect," he said. "If Kendall father not see that, his loss."

Kendall sighed. "I didn't do so great in the first grade," she said. "I failed tests, got answers wrong all the time on my homework, and couldn't, for the life of me, understand what the teacher was putting up on the blackboard. It really upset my father to have a stupid kid."

"But Kendall smartest person I know," Koda told her and pointed around the lab. "Make all this... strange stuff."

"It turned out, I just needed glasses," Kendall said. "But by the time mom figured that out, dad had already taken off. And I heard his fights with mom. They were often about me. I thought I chased him off because I was failing. So... I took his advice to heart. Whenever I made a mistake, I didn't make up excuses I just did everything I could to fix it and prevent it from happening again. I thought that would bring him back. But it never did."

"Father leaving not Kendall's fault. Father bad man."

"Yeah, I know that now."

"But I never leave," Koda pointed to himself. "Kendall can make a million mistake. I don't care."

"Thanks, Koda."

"Just, one promise."

"What?"

"No more climbing Zords," Koda told her. "I really scared. Kendall is best friend."

"I won't climb Zords," Kendall promised him. "I'm sticking around, Koda. Don't you worry about that."


End file.
